Dumping - caught

[bpeacock]

primary federal wire fraud statute is 18 U.S.C. § 1343.
Here is the key operative language:
“Whoever, having devised or intending to devise any scheme or artifice to defraud, or for obtaining money or property by means of false or fraudulent pretenses, representations, or promises, transmits or causes to be transmitted by means of wire, radio, or television communication in interstate or foreign commerce, any writings, signs, signals, pictures, or sounds for the purpose of executing such scheme or artifice, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 20 years, or both.”

 

[bpeacock]

18 U.S.C. § 371, the language most relevant to a collusion or match-fixing scenario is the first paragraph:
“If two or more persons conspire either to commit any offense against the United States, or to defraud the United States, or any agency thereof in any manner or for any purpose, and one or more of such persons do any act to effect the object of the conspiracy…”
That is the core conspiracy language prosecutors rely on.
The important concepts inside it are:
“two or more persons conspire”
→ an agreement or coordinated plan between people
“to commit any offense against the United States”
→ the agreement is aimed at violating another federal law (for example wire fraud or sports bribery)
“one or more… do any act”
→ at least one overt act must occur to advance the plan
In a hypothetical match-fixing case, prosecutors might argue:
two players agreed to rig a match,
the purpose was to commit wire fraud or sports bribery,
and overt acts included texts, payments, betting activity, or intentionally losing.
The conspiracy statute itself does not define the underlying wrongdoing — it attaches to another federal offense. So prosecutors typically pair § 371 with statutes like:
18 U.S.C. § 1343 (wire fraud),
18 U.S.C. § 224 (sports bribery),
or illegal gambling laws.

 

[bpeacock]

These guys may have broken 3 federal laws and all they had to do was return the money. They didn't even lose a penny.

 

[Bob Jewett]

These guys may have broken 3 federal laws and all they had to do was return the money. They didn't even lose a penny.

Is there any chance a federal prosecutor would care?

 

[Charlie Hustle]

Is there any chance a federal prosecutor would care?

No.

 

[straightline]

See, if you were in jail, and you f^*ked with somebody, you disrespect somebody, you can end up dead. But out here in the real world, there's no consequences. They only had to apologize, which imo is nothing. I'm all for gambling in pool, but conspiring with several others to dump so everyone involved wins, even both players, to me that's just wrong.
If they were banned from competition for x amount of time, or lost their sponsorships for x amount of time they may think twice before pulling stunts like this.
In reality if there were any consequences, it would just teach them to become better at keeping it hidden. Burner phones or only in-person meetings should be pretty apparent when your trying to scam people out of that kind of money.

As you probably know there are many more junctions that operate at the whim of the gate keepers - jobs and advancement, to name a couple "legit" ones. The pool crowd is already suspect. These guys self identified as risks - to both sides. Long dance ahead no matter what they think.